Southwest monsoon recedes from HP

Shimla, Oct 2 (UNI) The Southwest monsoon has completely withdrawn from entire Himachal Pradesh, which has recorded 36 per cent deficient rainfall this year, the Met office today said.

While the five districts of Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kinnuar, Mandi and Una districts received normal or more rainfall during the monsoon, the remaining seven districts of Chamba, Kangra, Kullu, Lahaul Spiti, Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan received deficient rainfall.

Chamba district recorded 77 per cent less rainfall this year, followed by 73 per cent in Lahaul Spiti district, 44 per cent in Kullu district, 37 per cent in Sirmaur, 32 per cent in Shimla, 24 and 23 per cent respectively in Solan and Kangra districts.

The Met office said with the withdrawal of monsoons over the entire state, besides neighbouring Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, remaining parts of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and western MP, there was no chance of making up for the shortfall.

Meanwhile, the higher altitude areas of Lahaul Spiti experienced fresh spell of mild snowfall last night after a few days, while clouds were hovering over the tribal districts of Kinnuar and Kullu.

The sky was mainly clear over the rest of the state with sun shinning brightly over the state capital, which saw the minimum temperature fall by a few notches to stand at 12.8 degrees as against 13.5 degree Celsius recorded yesterday.

The maximum temperature, however, remained stationary at 23.6 degree Celsius, while Sundernagar, Bhuntar and Kalpa recorded day temperatures of 31.5, 32 and 21 degree Celsius respectively.